War of the Silmarils

[genoah77]

It seems to me that there is a lot of potential for creating more Tolkien war games using the pre-history of Lord of the Rings, as found in The Silmarillion.

The map of Beleriand is fantastic (google it!) and offers (I think) tons of playable scenarios over hundreds of years of history.

One scenario could be the War of the Silmarils. For those less familiar with this story, the basic premise is that Morgoth (a badass Sauron) steals very valuable jewels (arguably more powerful than the One Ring) from the elf, Feanor, who created them. A giant war ensues between Morgoth and his lieutenants (including Sauron and multiple Balrogs) versus Feanor and his loyal oath-taking elves. There could be a lot of politics involved, as Men and Dwarves eventually enter the picture. The Silmarils are eventually stolen or taken from Morgoth (which could be the point of the whole game or games.)

There could be two sides (Free Peoples and Shadow), or more. Feanor's elves are so obsessed with the jewels that they are not friendly to other elven (like the Sindar) or human groups.

The possibilities for such a game are endless! Sauron could now become a playable character, and there are many familiar faces: Galadriel, Cirdan, Elrond, and Gil-galad. But even more exciting are the colossal amounts of intriguing and powerful new characters like Morgoth, Melian, Thingol, Feanor, Turin, Tuor, Turgon, Finrod, and others.

There could also be an opportunity to make spin-offs for battles, as there are five enormous ones that occur in the book: The First Battle of Beleriand, Dagor-nuin-Giliath (Battle-under-Stars), Dagor Aglareb (Glorious Battle), Dagor Bragollach (Battle of Sudden Flame), and Nírnaeth Arnoediad (Unnumbered Tears).

Let me know what you think!

I know that this would be a tremendous undertaking, but it seems like it would make a fantastic string of diverse games!

[Veldrin]

The main issue here is that the Tolkien estate has no interest whatsoever in licensing the Silmarilion. So only what is in The Hobbit,mLoyR or its appendexies will ever be adapted to anything beside its original literary form.

[mt77584]

Mar 13, 2015 15:29:04 GMT 1 Veldrin said:

The main issue here is that the Tolkien estate has no interest whatsoever in licensing the Silmarilion. So only what is in The Hobbit,mLoyR or its appendexies will ever be adapted to anything beside its original literary form.

I don't mean to be impolite, but I've heard there has been a great deal of criticism about Silmarillion. Although the author on the cover is J. R. R. Tolkien, most of the content was the interpretation, summarization, and personal opinions and the "completion" of notes by his son Christopher Tolkien. Christopher Tolkien is also the somewhat... overeager champion of the rights of the Tolkien Estate (I forgot if it had another name, such as "Tolkien Enterprises," etc.). I'm not really sure why Tolkien's son is rather protective about Silmarillion, though. Under his own name, Christopher Tolkien has published a ten-volume set of his father's notes concerning Middle-Earth and also another book, I think called Sons of Hurin.


To me, Silmarillion isn't an easy read... sorta like trying to read the Bible cover to cover. ;-D

[mt77584]

Also, a game based on 'Silmarillion' would be incredible difficult. You have almost totally different races of Elves, Men, and Dwarves, and super-powerful beings all fighting over a massive map, much larger than the Northwest of Middle-Earth itself. There is also Valinor and Numenor across the sea. It's almost impossible to explain the powers of the Valar. Lord Sauron the Great was a mere servant of Morgoth, who could only dimly be compared to "the Devil" in power. So how could you explain the other Valar? At one point, half Middle-Earth collapses into the ocean. Later on Numenor sinks like lost Atlantis. The game map would probably fill an entire room, and all I can imagine would be cardboard cut-aways to place over Beleriand and Numeror to show that those areas where no longer in play.